It is very hard to get an accurate estimate of how much each of the soverigns are worth.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Makhtoum of Dubai's wealth is impressive considering that it is made of business interests that he personally cultivated and still runs. On the other hand, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan's wealth is based on Abu Dhabi's Oil resources and thus inherited. Same goes for Saudia Arabia.

Queen Beatrix's wealth is grossly underestimated because how the family has managed to hide their investments over the years. She is a billionaress a few times over, easy.

Queen Elizabeth II's private wealth is pretty insignificant, esp, given the fact that she sits on 16 thrones.

It is interesting that there is no greater royal title than 'Emperor' yet Akihito of Japan without his goverment salary and perks qualifies for the poor house!

The British Royal Family cost £40million in 2007/08, but i was wondering if anyone could say how much other royal families cost to run? The Danish, Dutch, Spanish etc? I heard somewhere that the Liechtenstien royals pay for themselves, is that true?

Wow, for some of the countries, I think the monarchy should support itself, especially when they aren't as useful. For example; Monaco.

Hm i know what you mean, it doesn't seem as if Princess Caroline and Princess Stephanie do exsessive amounts of work for the state, I understand that Prince Albert is invovled with the government so i can understand why he would be funded by the state but i wonder if Caroline and Stephanie are?

The British Royal Family cost £40million in 2007/08, but i was wondering if anyone could say how much other royal families cost to run? The Danish, Dutch, Spanish etc? I heard somewhere that the Liechtenstien royals pay for themselves, is that true?

Umm.. not to be rude, but do you know anything about how the government of Monaco functions? The monarchy there is extremely active, useful, and necessary to the way the government operates.

The Monegasques pay no income tax, therefore, wherever the Grimaldis get their income from, should not get anyone excited. Besides the arrival of Grace Kelly put them on the map. The subsequent hoopla brought them prosperity and everyone benefited.

When Belgium was facing the political crisis, recently and talk about splitting the country and abolishing the monarchy was the talk of the day, there were a lot of reports about how much each royal costs, in addition to the residences they own etc etc.
With regard to the Spanish Royal family I read a lot of times that the subject in Spain is taboo. There is speculation as to how the sons in law earned their crust but nothing specific was ever discussed. I suppose the regard the Spaniards have for KJC keeps the reports to a minimum.

I was not trying to be rude. I was trying to clarify that the person in question clearly does not know how Monaco operates, and it could have come across as rude.

Boy? I find that very condessending.

Did Belgium seriously consider abolishing the royal family? I remember reading sometime back that one of the Royal Princes was involved in a financial scandal of some kind. Who in the Belgian royal family is funded by taxpayers? Thanks

One question: Are we calculating with just the sums they get from the various civil lists, and renovations, or also the more "hidden" variables that we have no way of knowing the costs of, such as the protection details?

One question: Are we calculating with just the sums they get from the various civil lists, and renovations, or also the more "hidden" variables that we have no way of knowing the costs of, such as the protection details?

Well there in lies a mystery lol. The British Royal Family seems relatively open about its finances,however the Danish royal family seems to only list limited finances. The Dutch royal family,according to various reports i've read state that the Dutch royals cost anywhere from 80millionto 133 million euros. This i guess includes all costs, such as secuirty etc, where as the British royal family does not disclose security costs or armed forces costs but costs the taxpayer costs the taxpayer £40million, but could cost up to £100million with these additional costs.

So i wonder if we will ever know the true cost of every royal family, does anyone know which royal family "hides" finances in other government departments etc?

Did Belgium seriously consider abolishing the royal family? I remember reading sometime back that one of the Royal Princes was involved in a financial scandal of some kind. Who in the Belgian royal family is funded by taxpayers? Thanks

Prince Laurent's assistant was in court and testified that the prince was involved in some sort of kickbacks, with regard to some navy contracts.
The recent times when the French speaking and Dutch speaking Belgians could not form a government and the Dutch speaking preferred to divide the country, there was talk about abolishing the monarchy. Luckily they formed a government late last year and so far so good.

I'm no political or financial expert, but as far as I can gather from the report from the Norwegian cabinet: the Norwegian royal house received 162.5 mil. NOK last year. (roughly £16 mil.) 22% more than the year before. There is some jarring in the numbers with some newspaper articles I've seen, which suggest the royal house gets less than this.

Annual report for 2007 (Albeit in Norwegian): 138 of those millions went to the King and Queen - court operations, palace renovations, staff costs (wages, pensions, etc. which received 78 mil.), etc. The monarchs received roughly 8 mil for personal use.

Haakon and MM received roughly 12 mil. 5.9 of those were for personal use.

In addition to this, according to newspapers, there is security, aide de camps, and various upkeep of the royal state-owned residences that are dealt with by others. Other newspapers claim that the upkeep to the state-owned residences - the Palace, Bygdø & Oscarshall are covered by the numbers above. Confusing.

Thanks norwegianne!! Doesn't sounds like alot lol especially compared to the BRF. But i suppose its hard to compare royal families costs. It surprises me how open the british royal family finances are when compared to other royals across the Europe.

Thanks norwegianne!! Doesn't sounds like alot lol especially compared to the BRF. But i suppose its hard to compare royal families costs. It surprises me how open the british royal family finances are when compared to other royals across the Europe.

Open compared to who? All three of the Scandinavian royal houses provide annual reports of their activities, including accounts of the money they receive from the state, much as the British does.